Theater workshop as an experiment in combating school violence

Abstract

The text is an experience report of the theater course entitled “Theater as an antidote to school violence”, taught by university professor Márcia Baltazar, with the collaboration of extension scholarship holder Luana Emelly Santos, for the class of the Sergipe Age-Right Program (PROSIC), at the Centro de Excelência Professor José Carlos de Sousa school, in Aracaju/SE. The objective of the course was to reduce the discomfort of the class itself and the teachers in the face of the students’ behavior, especially rowdyism, indiscipline and bullying. The aim was to carry out the game Affective Choir of Institutions and Somatics, which is a copy of the methodology of the Social Theater of Affections, added to procedures arising from somatic education. The thoughts of some authors on violence and the chosen theater methodology are presented. Three meetings with the class are described, reporting the agreements and the theater dynamics adopted. It is concluded that we were unable to reproduce the Affective Choir of Institutions and Somatics methodology, but we were able to deepen reflections on everyday violence in the lives of these students.